More transparency from banks on their sovereign and banking-sector exposures was ordered; there will be more prodding to retain capital in good times; and there will be more monitoring of "opaque funding structures".

Sir John Vickers , the chairman of the government-appointed Independent Commission on Banking studying banking-sector reforms, Tuesday said one of the panel's ultimate aims is to strip away the bulk of an implied, annual state subsidy of more than £10 billion enjoyed by the country's banks, mainly in the form of cheaper funding.

But Canadian officials have used that resilience, and the country's relatively low debt load, to promote a Canadian prescription of lower spending and banking-sector prudence for the economic ills in the U.S. and Europe.